Meet the Kerala Man Who Moved HC To Feed His Cats During Lockdown

N Prakash is more than satisfied with the Kerala High Court order which allowed him to travel to the pet hospital in Kochi on Tuesday and buy food for his cats. Without it, his cats would have been down to their last meal today evening.

In their order, the judges said they were happy to help avert a “CATastrophe”.

Prakash, who lives Maradu in Kochi with his family, takes care of three cats and two kittens on the first floor of his home.

He had moved the high court this week after twice being denied a vehicle pass by the police to go to the Cochin Pet Hospital in Kadavanthara and buy a stock of ‘Me-O Persian’ for his cats.

Prakash told the court that he had three cats to feed, which included 8-year-old Karpi and her two one-month-old kittens who were still being breastfed, 5-year-old Mukki who recently had her uterus removed, and the youngest Kunju Karpi, who the family has been taking care of for the last 2-3 months.

Karpi with her one-month-old kittens

“I usually feed them three times a a day. But as the food stock dwindled, I reduced the amount I was giving to them because I would have run out by Saturday and we didn’t know when we would get a permit,” he told HuffPost India over the phone.

By the end of last week, he had reduced portions to feed them once a day to make food last.

“On April 3 evening, I applied for a permit to go out at 10 am on April 4 (to the hospital) and return within 30 minutes. It was rejected without reason. So I sent another request on April 5, but late at 11.27 pm on Saturday night I got another rejection,” he said.

Prakash was unhappy with high-handedness of the police. The police had not let him go to a fruit shop nearby when his son was ailing from chicken pox two weeks ago. His neighbours too had had trouble going to the hospital to treat their pets.

Kunju Karpi

Having worked at the Kerala high court as a private secretary till his retirement, he knew the procedures involved in filing a writ petition online.